Collateral damage in the war on political corruption

Ryan went to prison and Blagojevich likely will as well, but it is their loved ones who suffer

June 28, 2011|By Bob Secter and Rick Pearson, Tribune reporters

Patti Blagojevich returns home with her daughter Annie on Thursday while the jury continued to deliberate in the retrial of her husband, former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. (Phil Velasquez, Chicago Tribune)

Some victims of crime are obvious and others are collateral damage, a maxim sadly made clear this week in rapid-fire succession by the corruption conviction of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the death of his imprisoned predecessor's wife, Lura Lynn Ryan.

Blagojevich will almost surely face a stiff prison sentence, leaving behind a wife and two school-age daughters who have no clear-cut source of income. Ryan's battle with cancer was a lonely one in her final months as she bounced in and out of the hospital while her husband, former Gov. George Ryan, was allowed only a few brief visits.

To some, such fallout may seem heartbreaking, but it also demonstrates a bitter truth about the life and times of the modern political family.

"Politicians try to have it both ways," said David Yepsen, head of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University. "They try to use their families to enhance their image. But when a politician … fails or is convicted of a crime or does something embarrassing, then the family becomes a victim. Political leaders need to decide if they make use of their family politically, they should respect them enough to walk the straight and narrow."

U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer made a similar point in December in rejecting George Ryan's petition for early release from a 6½-year sentence for corruption so he could be with his terminally ill wife.

Pallmeyer said she has had to turn down similar but even more compelling requests from inmates with little fame, including those who are the sole support of children or the lone caregiver for disabled relatives.

"Mr. Ryan, like other convicted persons, undoubtedly wishes it were otherwise," the judge wrote. "His conduct has exacted a stiff penalty not only for himself but also for his family."

Several jurors in the Blagojevich case said the ripple effects on his family weighed on them.

"Many times, we talked about the fact that we have this man's freedom in our hands and he has a family," said Maribel DeLeon, of West Dundee, who said she prayed for the Blagojeviches even as she voted to convict him.

At the same time, DeLeon blamed Blagojevich for needlessly inflicting pain on his older daughter, Amy, 14, by bringing her to court one day.

"It was heartbreaking," DeLeon said. "I felt like that's all she is going to remember of her teenage years, is going through that."

Amy was just 6 when Blagojevich first ran for governor in 2002. At the time his wife, Patti, then pregnant with Annie, fretted about the possibility of having to raise her family in a fishbowl.

But her husband was hardly shy about using his growing family to win over voters, something he boasted of as "good politics." Once, Blagojevich prodded a reluctant Amy to help out while campaigning at a South Side church.

"Look them right in the eye, honey," he instructed. "Go get Daddy some votes."

Another time, as reporters pressed for answers he had been ducking about a hiring scandal, Blagojevich clutched Annie, holding the then 3-year-old in front of him like a shield. He blamed the news media when she began to bawl.

Amy became the unwitting center of attention during her father's bid for re-election in 2006. The Tribune disclosed then that a state parks administrator, Beverly Ascaridis, told the FBI of suspicions she got her job after her husband, Michael, gave Amy a $1,500 birthday present.

How much to expose or shield family members from the political limelight varies widely from officeholder to officeholder. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has assiduously guarded the privacy of his wife and children.

Emanuel, who testified at Blagojevich's trial and whose name came up frequently in testimony and on wiretaps, had little to say the day after the verdict except to mention its impact on the family of the former governor and onetime friend.

"I think we should all take one step back as it relates to the consequences to a wife and children," he told reporters.

One former member of Blagojevich's inner circle said the former governor, too, sought to minimize the impact of his job on his children.

"One thing you can never say is that he was a bad father," said the onetime adviser, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak for the family.

"The decision not to live in Springfield, one that was made by him right or wrong, was for the kids," the former adviser said. "His political decision to fly home every night when he was in Springfield, something people were critical of and rightly so, was totally family-oriented."

Blagojevich sat for two criminal trials over the last year, and the first one last summer highlighted in great detail how he spent a sizable portion of his workdays at home. On many government wiretaps played for jurors, the sounds of children's cartoons could be heard in the background as Blagojevich chatted with advisers.